- Press Release - The 2nd Annual Tres Pescados Slam Tournament scheduled for August 12th, 13th and 14th, 2010 has been approved once again as a qualifying event for the IGFA Inshore World Championships held each year in Islamorada, Florida. Belize will again be 1 of only 3 countries outside of the USA approved as a qualifying event bringing prestige and professionalism to our annual fly fishing event and local guides.

Also this past week the 2010 IGFA Inshore World Championships website began listing the names and biography of the entrants in this year’s World Championship event that is to be filmed by ESPN with our past winner, Thomas Reckling, representing the Tres Pescados Slam Tournament of Belize. Thomas will be competing against a field of about 12 fly anglers and 16 light tackle anglers.

This bio is from the Worlds website: Thomas Reckling, 42, was born and raised in Houston, TX. He is the father of 6 kids, 3 boys-3 girls - and the husband of Michelle who is an incredibly understanding wife.

He spends the majority of his fishing days in the Galveston bay complex with a few days fishing the middle and lower coast of Texas. When he has the opportunity to travel it is typically to Mexico or Belize.

Thomas says “He feels honored for the opportunity to fish in the Inshore World Championships. This is a once in a lifetime event for me since I am not a true tournament angler. I am looking forward to meeting all of the guys I read about in the magazines. My fishing partner, Mark Elliott and I won the Tres Pescado Slam Tournament which was operated by Jim Oliver at Ambergris Caye. It was so much fun we declared the tournament a success half way through the first day of fishing. Jim put on a great tournament. Mark who was my partner and my fishing mate for the past 25 years, died suddenly in October. He was supposed to make this trip to the World Championships and I am fishing in his honor. It was our first and only fly fishing tournament. I am going back to defend at the Tres Pescado (with) Mark Elliott’s brother, Charlie.”

We wish Thomas all the luck and hope to have a special “BELIZE” fly fishing shirt created and sent to him to wear during the Worlds and know that he will get it in front of the ESPN cameras at every opportunity.

This year’s Tres Pescados Slam already has more entries in the Pro division than the number of teams that fished at last year’s event. In addition to the great fishing, evening events, and estimated payout of $10,000, custom Belize built tournament fly rods with the winner’s names on them are being awarded to each of the 1st place winners in the casting competition.

More sponsors and teams are still needed to make this unique event a success – it is the sponsors and teams that are the stars of this global event bringing Belize to the world stage of saltwater fly fishing tournaments!